John Muir Creates Sierra Club (1892)
On May 28, 1892, John Muir and his supporters established the Sierra Club in San Francisco, California, as an environmental club to advocate the conservation and preservation of our parks, wilderness, and wildlife.
John Muir was born in Scotland, immigrated to the United States, and eventually made his way to California where he began to explore the nature world in the 1860s. Muir became a devoted conservationist and preservationist and advocated his beliefs.
Muir wrote and taught extensively on his love for nature and had a gift in describing nature unlike many others. For example, Muir once described nature as a place where the
"sun shines not on us, but in us. The rivers flow not past but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating … the very stones seem talkative and brotherly. One fancies a heart like our own must be beating in every crystal and cell. No wonder when we consider that we all have the same Father and Mother."
Muir developed a lasting relationship with President Theodore Roosevelt and inspired him to take more action to preserve America’s natural wonders. He also helped to establish many of our national parks, such as Yosemite National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, and others.
May 28, 1892, in yet another attempt to advocate his beliefs, John Muir and his supporters formed the Sierra Club, an activist-based environmental club. The Club elected Muir as its first president and he held the office until his death in 1914.
In 1971, the Sierra Club established a Legal Defense Fund to litigate on behalf of the Club. Over time, the Club has fought against cutbacks in the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and Superfund laws dealing with contaminated land. The Club advocates laws to regulate nuclear power plants, the use of and transfer of radioactive materials, and many other issues.
Today, the Sierra Club's mission is:
To explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth; To practice and promote the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources; To educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.
The Sierra Club is also the oldest, largest, and one of the most active environmental organizations in the United States, and the Club has over one million members worldwide including such famous members as photographer Ansel Adams. The Club continues to fight to protect the country’s natural resources, parks, wilderness, and wildlife. Muir’s ideas live on and his actions have set an example for generations to come.
In the words of John Muir, "Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike."